All the Arts, All the Time

REDCAT--a theater at age 5

November 28, 2008 | 4:40
pm

Is REDCAT still a cool addition to the city's cultural scene?

On view now through Jan. 18: "9 Scripts From a Nation at War," a video installation that explores the role of language in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; on Jan. 10, there will be a five-hour public reading of 18 tribunals held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Dec. 3-7 David Gordon's "Trying Times (Remembered)" returns to the stage for the first time since 1982. "The landmark 'Trying Times' is his purposefully 'anti-signature' piece, linking a range of movement, visual devices and dialogue to weave a course between droll off-handedness and precisely calibrated design," says the publicity. Next, on Dec. 8 performance artist Joan Jonas presents a theatrical version of a work that considers two literary sources: Dante and German historian Aby Warburg. These programs epitomize the knotty, left-of-center work that has been filling Disney Hall's REDCAT theater and adjoining gallery for five seasons now. On this occasion, The Times asked its theater, classical music and art critics to consider the programming so far. Hint -- they don't agree on REDCAT's record.

Photo: In its first days of operation in 2003, REDCAT hosted the Japanese new media and performance collective that goes by the lowercase name dumb type. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times